The Government’s system of priorities must be seriously questioned when it continues to target the weaker sections of the community. Today the Dáil will be discussing a Fine Gael motion in relation to the cutting of special needs classes.

The initiative of Tesco, Ireland’s second-largest supermarket chain, in cutting the prices of 12,500 items by an average of 22% at 11 stores, should be welcomed. Hopefully, this will stimulate the competitive instincts of rivals and bring about a general reduction in prices.

IF there were rankings for muddling, overpaid, bureaucratic inefficiency, surely our Health Service Executive would deserve a high international ranking.

The Dublin City Coroner has questioned the accuracy of statistics suggesting that Dublin has a lower incidence of suicide than the rest of the country.

With the slowdown in the economy one might expect the rate of insurance claims to go down.

The one absolute certainty in this life is that it will ultimately end in death.

IN this, the Great Age of Anxiety, hard-core pessimists or even high-handicap worriers have more than enough calamities, imagined or otherwise, to fuel their agitation.

THIS week’s Prison Officers’ Association (POA) conference in Castlebar should make anyone who still cares for this country sit up and take notice.

JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern has defended the move to establish a crime of blasphemous libel, stating only that a definition was required by the Constitution. It is difficult not to be disturbed by the development.

THE establishment of Lyric FM ten years ago today was one of the very best and truly positive things that has happened in this country in many, many years.